At 2.24 kilometres above sea level, the air is around 22 per cent thinner in Mexico City.

It takes a toll on both car and driver.

Cooling is less efficient in the thinner atmosphere, with less air gusting through the cars to keep brakes and power unit temperatures in check. Aerodynamics work less effectively too, with less air producing less downforce.

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

Drivers aren’t immune from the conditions. The heart and lungs work harder just to process the same amount of oxygen, putting athletes under more stress sooner.

Despite the stark climatic differences, however, Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing still ended with the fastest time.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

VERSTAPPEN FASTEST BUT CAUTIOUS ABOUT RACE PACE

Skipping FP1 had no discernible negative effect on Verstappen’s pace and momentum, with the Dutchman easily topping a slipper FP2 session to establish himself as the driver to beat this weekend.

But that title might apply over only one lap. Despite the good one-lap pace, Verstappen was downcast about his race pace.

“Everything else was pretty bad,” he said. “The big problem is the long runs, where we seem to struggle a lot. That is of course a big concern for the race

“The balance wasn’t even off, there was just no grip. That was the bigger concern.

“As soon as you go in a sustainable run, the tyres are getting hot and we’re nowhere.

“You’re not going to win the race like that. You can be fast over one lap, but if you have absolutely zero pace in the race, it’s going to be very tough, so I’d prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap.

“That’s a tough one to sort out as well, but we’ll see.”

Norris, Piastri unite against Verstappen | 00:47

Verstappen is describing the principal challenge in Mexico City, where the high altitude means cars are producing less downforce despite running with Monaco-style maximum wing levels. Less downforce means the car slides more, which in turn overheats and eventually kills the tyres. The track temperature is also higher here, with the asphalt starting above 40°C, exacerbating the issue.

To simplify Red Bull Racing’s issues this year, the RB21 has had a narrow set-up window. It’s been broadened significantly by recent upgrades, but perhaps the unusual high-altitude demands are working against it.

But it’s also worth remembering that this time last week Verstappen was also concerned about his car’s race pace before dominating the grand prix with some set-up tweaks made between the sprint and Saturday qualifying.

With a whole night to pore over the data and another practice session, it would be dangerous to discount Red Bull Racing pulling it together before qualifying tomorrow.

PIT TALK PODCAST: Max Verstappen has taken 64 points out of Oscar Piastri’s title lead in just four rounds on a trajectory that would have him take the title lead before the end of the season. The Dutchman has all the momentum. Can McLaren hit back to ensure the championship double?

McLAREN OFF THE PACE BUT OPTIMISTIC ABOUT RACE PACE

While it’s always difficult to string together a perfect run in the high climes of Mexico City, this was far from an ideal hour of running for McLaren.

Lando Norris was quickest McLaren driver, but his day ended with him in fourth and 0.251s off the pace.

Things were worse for Oscar Piastri, though, who ended the day 12th fastest and 0.840 seconds slower than the session-topping Verstappen.

The gap between the teammates was a chunky 0.589 seconds.

There is some nuance to those raw numbers.

Both drivers had poor first laps on softs. Norris struggled through the stadium section in the final sector, while a big slide for Piastri at turn 11 cost him in the middle split. Both lost around half a second, ending up closely matched.

Norris went for a second run on the same set of softs and subsequently improved. Given his best time was set on used tyres, it’s reasonable to assume there’s be more pace in the car.

Piastri, however, didn’t appear to complete a second flying lap and never improved his time.

Given they were split by just 0.052 seconds after their first runs and that even after Norris’s second run there was less than 0.1 seconds between them in the first and last sectors, it’s fair to assume a clean lap from Piastri would have had him at least in the ballpark.

“I think the lap on softs on low fuel was pretty average, so I’m not surprised with the lap time,” Piastri said. “I tried a lot of things; we’ll go through and have a look at what worked and what didn’t, but overall I felt reasonable.

“We’ll see what we can tune up for tomorrow and try and make things a bit more consistent, I think that’s the biggest thing.”

Some have suggested Piastri’s poor practice showing to be a continuation of his late-season slump, but the Australian denied his lowly position in the order was connected to his disappointing weekend in Texas.

“There were a few things that we identified from Austin,” he said. “It was a pretty messy weekend as well, so I think there were plenty of things that we found.

“They were all small things, but when you put them all together, they add up, so I think we’ve got a good handle on last week.

“It’s going to be tight like always, but I think we’ve got a good car underneath us.”

But even if Piastri drags himself back onto Norris’s pace, there’s no guarantee that will mean he’ll be in victory contention.

Norris was cautious about McLaren’s outlook for the weekend after a scrappy start to practice.

“My first lap was pretty good and second lap was a good step,” he said. “I felt like I found the limit quickly, but there was the limit, which is just holding us back a bit.

“It’s not that it was a bad day, but normally we’re very good on a Friday and everyone catches up on Saturday. We’re already a little bit behind, so we have definitely some work to do tonight.

“The balance of the car is just a bit all over the place — same as the last few weeks. Single lap stuff we’re struggling with at the minute.

“We’re working hard. We’re trying everything we can, so we’ll see what we can do and see what we can find.”

It could be that Red Bull Racing is fastest over a single lap while McLaren is better over a race run, putting Norris and Piastri in a position to chase what would be a meaningful victory in the context of the championship.

Miller’s heartbreaking reaction to crash | 00:31

RED BULL RACING PUSHING FORWARD WITH UPGRADES

The differences in upgrade schedules between McLaren and Red Bull Racing has become an increasingly important part of the championship battle as Verstappen rapidly closes on Piastri’s title lead.

McLaren’s last major upgrade was at July’s British Grand Prix. It brought minor tweaks to Belgium in July and Italy in September but hasn’t updates its car since, with full focus on the new regulations for 2026.

Red Bull Racing has taken a markedly different approach. Including this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, the team has brought upgrades to nine of the last 10 weekends.

The only exception was last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, with sprint weekends rarely featuring updates given the lack of practice time.

While five other teams have brought cooling tweaks is to better cope with the thinner altitude in Mexico City, Red Bull Racing has also disclosed updates to its floor — the most important aerodynamic part on the car — that it hopes will boost performance.

The team explained the new floor was reworked from a previous iteration and featured “a new upper surface rearwards of the outer floor fence plus sidepod split line are offered, the latter to accommodate the sidepod revision.

“These offer the cooling benefit noted above a small increase in load.”

The team further said in a second upgrade note that “to draw benefit from the lowered upper floor surface and made from the previous edge wing specification, a revised leading edge region extracts a little more load whilst maintaining flow stability.”

Red Bull Racing has admitted that its 2025 development program is compromising its 2026 car but is adamant that it must press on with this year’s car to validate its development tools. The team doesn’t want to make the same development mistakes next year that hamstrung it earlier this season.

Recent months would certainly suggest the team is on top of its tools, with Red Bull Racing having won three of the last five grands prix and taken three of the last five pole positions.

The RB21 has been comfortably the fastest frontrunner since the mid-season break over a single lap.

Gap to fastest since the mid-season break

1. Red Bull Racing: 0.089 seconds

2. McLaren: 0.144 seconds

3. Mercedes: 0.396 seconds

4. Ferrari: 0.470 seconds

“We still take it race by race,” Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekeis said. “Everyone back in Milton Keynes is pushing so hard, and it gives a further incentive to all of us.

“We don’t look at the championship classification, we look at it session by session — you go into FP1, try to evaluate the parts that you have on the car, try to get the right data, try to get the right learning, go to FP2, get the tyre comparison right and so forth and so on.

“It’s positive pressure. I don’t think there’s anyone pushing harder than [Verstappen] does, but it’s with a positive pressure to try to extract everything we can on every single lap out there.

“The commitment is there, but we try to look at it as positive pressure.”

Ferrari, Sauber, Williams, Racing Bulls and Alpine all brought cooling-specific upgrades, while McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Haas listed no changes to their cars for this weekend.

Gold Coast 500 kicks off Finals series | 01:13

TSUNODA COULD GET TEMPORARY REPRIEVE AFTER RED BULL BACKFLIP

Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad was the star rookie of FP1 as the only stand-in driver to crack the top 10.

Lindblad, who is heavily tipped for a Racing Bulls drive in 2026, was sixth in the order and 0.093s faster than Yuki Tsunoda in the sister car.

Despite Lindblad’s somewhat underwhelming Formula 2 campaign to date — he’s seventh in the standings with only one feature win — the Briton’s elevation to Formula 1 has long been reports as a formality.

That in turn is applying considerable pressure to Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who would stand to miss out on a seat next year to accommodate the next generation.

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko certainly sounded convinced about Lindblad’s aptitude for promotion after FP1.

“For Arvid it was a very difficult situation,” he told Sky Sport Italy. “He was told, ‘Don’t do anything wrong, don’t crash the car’, but he still delivered and he was the fastest rookie.

“I have to say his technical feedback was also impressive, so we are very happy with him.”

Marko said earlier this year that decisions would be made on Red Bull’s four-car driver line-up after this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, with the brand wanting not to leave a call to the end of the season.

But despite him appearing sold on Lindblad’s potential, he hinted at a delay to his previously stated timeline.

“We got some answers, but I can’t tell you what the driver line-up will be,” he said. “We will wait a little bit and then we decide.

“Let’s see after the race here and then we will make at least some comments.”

That’s good news for Tsunoda, whose place at Red Bull Racing could be decisive in shaping the broader line-up.

Tsunoda’s hold on the seat is tenuous given his paltry 28 points for the season, and Isack Hadjar is heavily rumoured to be set to take his seat next season.

Whether Tsunoda can keep a spot in the sport at Racing Bulls, potentially at Liam Lawson’s expense, would then have to be decided.

Red Bull Racing principal Laurent Mekies said the team was no longer in a rush to make that call.

“We want to give Yuki and all our other drivers as much time as we can,” he told Sky Sports. “I know we’ve said in the past we may want to decide after Mexico, but really there is no need for us to rush anything.

“[Tsunoda] has done a very good race in Austin … we’ll take out time, and when we feel we are ready, we will do it. No need to rush.”

It could be a critical reprieve for Tsunoda and Lawson, who have what appears to be at least one more grand prix to state their cases.

Tsunoda ended FP2 seventh and 0.491 seconds off Verstappen’s pace.